Hello,
Residents of Indian cities now more or less expect that they will flood within hours of monsoon rains every year. Many believe that the cities are simply not designed to handle the level of rain they receive.
But in fact, some are equipped with fairly robust stormwater drain systems, as Vaishnavi Rathore found, looking at the example of Delhi. It was, primarily, poor management of this system and unregulated construction over it that left the drains clogged and useless in many parts of the city. In Delhi, the failure to resolve this problem was particularly stark given that some years ago, the government commissioned a study on it by IIT Delhi, only to shelve its analysis and recommendations.

“Working on this story made me cognisant of the world beneath my feet in Delhi," Rathore said. "The complex network of stormwater drains and natural drains which I had been oblivious of earlier.”
She added, “Once I learnt that, the solid waste often blocking these drains became unmissable, and it suddenly started to make sense why certain patches enroute to the office or the road in front of my apartment would often waterlog with even little rain.”
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Ajay Krishnan
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Why Indian cities flood within hours of rain

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